The wrong kind of details: the components of wonder (aka lmp's rant) - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 08-12-2002, 10:08 AM

Kuruharan: I had forgotten Tollers' opinion on the Norman conquest - and of course, you're right. And he was right. [sic] Some things just should never have been. It would be like a tribe of the Dunlendings having lived for two generations in Gondor, gained enough culture to make them trouble but not enough to make them civilized, and descend upon Edoras and own it for good, foisting some 'mutt' Gondorian speech upon the Rohirrim. Of course, the analogy is not adequate since the Gondorians were a bit more civilized than the French of that era (sorry if you're French).

Naaramare: Just so. And here's an addition to my little rant: there's not really much charm to speak of in Kay, not of the Holbitla ilk. Not that the absence weakens Kay's story, which is wonder-ful in its way. But somehow the Hobbits function with their charm so as to cause wonder in such a way that cannot be found in any other book. When an author provides a version of hobbits, it comes off false, or sugary, or imitative or worse. Why is this? Or can anyone think of any exceptions? What other kinds of charm might be subcreated if not Hobbits?

08-12-2002, 10:08 AM	#22
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	Kuruharan: I had forgotten Tollers' opinion on the Norman conquest - and of course, you're right. And he was right. [sic] Some things just should never have been. It would be like a tribe of the Dunlendings having lived for two generations in Gondor, gained enough culture to make them trouble but not enough to make them civilized, and descend upon Edoras and own it for good, foisting some 'mutt' Gondorian speech upon the Rohirrim. Of course, the analogy is not adequate since the Gondorians were a bit more civilized than the French of that era (sorry if you're French). Naaramare: Just so. And here's an addition to my little rant: there's not really much charm to speak of in Kay, not of the Holbitla ilk. Not that the absence weakens Kay's story, which is wonder-ful in its way. But somehow the Hobbits function with their charm so as to cause wonder in such a way that cannot be found in any other book. When an author provides a version of hobbits, it comes off false, or sugary, or imitative or worse. Why is this? Or can anyone think of any exceptions? What other kinds of charm might be subcreated if not Hobbits?